Nanna Winnie

You could never meet a more lovely person than Winnie, our Nan. I remember walking to the post office in Filey Road on Saturday afternoons as a child, and you could almost guarantee we’d get stopped for a chat by one or two people on the Estate; we’d be on the way to see Frank for the pension (and a quarter of pear drops and the latest copy of Smash Hits if I was well behaved!). She had many friends.

I don’t know much about her early life, but it seems she had a pretty tough childhood, growing up in post World War I Britain, not really knowing much about her own family and where she came from. After volunteering herself to be part of the Land Army in WWII, she met and married my Grandad Wally in Hatfield, and moved up to Grimsby to start a family of her own. She went on to raise four children, though sadly this was not without tragedy, as she lost her youngest son, Robert, in a motor cycle accident when he was just 17 years old. Despite these difficulties in her early life, and trying times as a wife and mother, she was the most wonderful, caring person. I don’t ever remember her raising her voice to us grandkids once-normally Grandad would be the one shouting ‘Stop running up and down that passage!’. She always had a smile on her face.

Nanna worked at the old Birdseye factory canteen for many, many years, which meant she was a great cook, especially her pastries. She’d always have baked something for the family gatherings at her house on Saturday afternoons, whether it be sausage rolls, coconut cakes, or my personal favourite, jelly and condensed milk, sometimes with tinned oranges if you were lucky-though I think she just did that one just for me…

After Grandad’s sad passing in 2001, Nanna enjoyed some of the freedoms associated with single life, and I am very glad that she got the opportunity to explore new places and make some new friends. She had easily four holidays a year, every time you spoke to her she was off on another coach trip!

Nanna also seemed to have a knack of winning at cash bingo too, you could guarantee that her and Audrey would be sharing a line or full house down the Gala when you asked her. I also credit her with my helping to develop my memory skills through playing pairs with the old Mr. Men cards, and also teaching the grandkids how to gamble at an early age with pennies in the kitty, playing Kings.

Sitting here and writing this now, I look back at all those Saturdays spent with our grand parents, and think how much I enjoyed that time, and how important they were in making us who we are today.

Nanna Win, if I can be half the Nan you were to my grandkids in the future, I don’t think I’d have done too badly! You will be sadly missed.